[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 17]
[House]
[Pages 23633-23634]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            RED RIBBON WEEK

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Sodrel). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Souder) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. SOUDER. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleagues in the entire House 
today for adopting H. Res. 485, supporting the goals of Red Ribbon 
Week. Red Ribbon Week, which is this week, helps bring together local 
communities for anti-drug abuse education and other prevention efforts. 
I would like to thank all the members who cosponsored this resolution, 
and Chairman Joe Barton of the Energy and Commerce Committee, and 
Chairman Nathan Deal of the Health Subcommittee for their assistance in 
bringing it before the whole House. Regrettably, as this resolution was 
added to the schedule only last night, I was in my Congressional 
district and was unable to be on the House floor today to express my 
support for my own bill.
  However, I am very pleased that we were able to pass Red Ribbon Week. 
Twenty years ago, in March 1985, Special Agent Enrique Camarena of the 
Drug Enforcement Agency, DEA, was kidnapped, tortured and murdered by 
drug dealers in Mexico. Red Ribbon Week began as a local commemorative 
effort Agent Camarena's hometown of Calexico, California. Congressman 
Duncan Hunter and Camarena's high school friend, Henry Lozano, created 
the Camarena Club to preserve the agent's legacy. The National Family 
Partnership later formalized Red Ribbon Week as a national campaign, an 
8-day event proclaimed by the U.S. Congress and chaired by then 
President and Mrs. Ronald Reagan.
  Red Ribbon Week is dedicated to helping preserve Agent Camarena's 
memory and further the cause for which he gave his life, the fight 
against the violence of drug crime and the misery of addiction. By 
gathering together in special events and wearing a red ribbon during 
the last week in October, Americans from all walks of life demonstrate 
their opposition to drugs. Such events include organizing drug 
prevention events and schools distributing educational materials to 
young people about the dangers of drug abuse and other activities 
designed to promote healthy choices. Approximately 80 million people 
participate in Red Ribbon events each year.
  I would also like to use this opportunity to urge that our leadership 
soon act on anti-methamphetamine legislation, legislation with broad 
bipartisan support. I hope that after this legislation is passed, it is 
then applied to the Commerce, State, Justice appropriations bill and 
any other appropriate appropriations bill that we have not yet passed, 
rather than languishing with a few hundred bills over in the other 
body. We need results, not just more posturing, not just talk, actual 
money and actual policy in the fight against methamphetamines.
  I hope the appropriations conference committees do not undo the will 
of the House, as we added methamphetamine funding in a number of 
appropriations bills, including adding $25 million to the national ad 
campaign specifically designed for methamphetamine prevention, not a 
reallocation of other committee money. We had an offset, it was money 
specifically in the ad campaign for anti-methamphetamine advertising.
  Also, that this $25 million not be diverted to other types, on 
marijuana and other issues, it is for methamphetamine advertising. It 
is very important, it was bipartisan and it was overwhelming. We need 
to do these things. We have not had a lot of bipartisanship in this 
House, but in this battle against methamphetamines, we have that.
  The same on steroids. I have been a long-suffering White Sox fan for 
over 50 years at this point in my life. I am thrilled they are in the 
World Series. This is a time that we should move the ONDCP, the so-
called drug czar bill through, which has been held up because even 
though it passed unanimously through the committee, which was not an 
easy process, we have a very divided Government Reform and Oversight 
Committee, but we were unanimous on trying to address the problems of 
steroids.
  Rafael Palmeiro thumbed his nose at this Congress, as did Mark 
McGwire, and then the reaction of the Baltimore Orioles when he 
actually went to testify, they said he was not welcomed back in their 
locker room because he named other players. If there is any doubt in 
our minds that Major League Baseball will never solve the problem of 
performance-enhancing drugs, it is that scene in the Baltimore locker 
room.
  If their club mentality is to punish the players who finger the 
dealers, who punish the trainers who identify and cooperate with law 
enforcement, it will never be fixed internally. We can sit here and 
twiddle our thumbs and be bullied by different organizations that do 
not want this, but it is time during Red Ribbon Week for us to stand up 
and say we are going to do something in a bipartisan way on 
methamphetamine. We are doing to do something on steroids, and we will 
bring these bills to the floor and we will find out how to make them 
law.
  That is how we can recognize Agent Camarena, a DEA agent who was shot 
by law enforcement officials on the other side of the border, one of 
the most tragic events that led to this whole national campaign. What 
we can do here in Congress, in addition to speaking out in our 
district, working with events, as I am going to be at South Side High 
School in Fort Wayne this Saturday. They are going to have a poster 
contest and a basketball event to try to get kids in other programs and 
keep them off the streets.
  We need to do that as Members of Congress, but we are legislators. 
What we need to do is pass the bills that the House has already spoken 
out on regarding methamphetamines, pass the bills that have unanimous 
backing on steroids and stop holding it up, getting it done, even if a 
few powerful people want to stop it. What better time to do it when the 
White Sox finally win the World Series, and we take a strong stand on 
baseball.

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